Ten opposition parliamentary hopefuls fail to beat deadline

Ten Zanzibar-based members of opposition parties aspiring for parliamentary seats have failed to beat the deadline for returning nomination forms to the Zanzibar Electoral Commission.

Their quest for the hotly contested seats, which witnessed bruising political battles in the primaries, has thus all but come to a dead end.

The deadline for the parliamentary aspirants to return the nomination forms to ZEC ready for campaigns for the October 31 General Election was last Saturday. Most aspirants from the ruling CCM and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) beat the deadline.